Honesty and Trauma: The acceptance that we’re broken

Sometimes we do things that we don’t want to do for the sake of our lives in the long run. We make decisions that are ultimately for us, and nobody else, and then on top of it all, we have to trust that the decision that we made was the right one. Sometimes we have to face the actual facts of a matter, understanding that eventually, reality of the situation will take its foothold whether we want it to or not, and either you choose to see how things really are now, or see the trauma of it all at a later, more inconvenient point. Sometimes the force of that harsh reality will sting worse than you ever thought it would, knocking you off of your feet and placing you in a choke-hold of which you do not think you can ever escape. Sometimes that pain can bring the ultimately joy that you’ve been waiting to find all of your life- rediscovering God and the life that he had for you all along.

It’s easy to put on a mask. Pretending like your world is nothing but perfect and striving to have everyone convinced that you have it together. It will get old and if it hasn’t yet, I promise you, something will change and you will not have the ability to hold it in anymore. What will change is your desire to be seen as “perfect”. Your desire to please everyone and accommodate their needs before taking care of yourself will fade- will you fade with it? How are you truly supposed to help anyone else in their journey if you can’t face the reality that you do have rough seasons and are not flawless? In many circumstances, it is not selfish to tend to yourself but actually vital for your survival. Are you clear that as a result of trials and life as a whole, you will inevitably change? Who said that this change was a bad thing, to steer clear of and avoid? What effectiveness do we have as Christians to convey that though things are rough, they will get better if we refuse to be vulnerable, accepting that we are not perfect and that our lives will look different from what we might have thought it would look like? We have no effectiveness if we can’t be honest with ourselves or with God that we have problems that must be worked out and resolved. And that our minds and our thought processes will be altered with it. We must truly be transformed of our pride and our vain qualities- easier said than done, I get it. But let’s not use that as an excuse anymore.

I challenge everyone to accept and see their circumstances for what they are. To understand that the cliché “God doesn’t give you more than you can handle” is simply not true; we struggle daily, our walks with God were never supposed to be perfect. We were never meant to be perfect. And we weren’t meant to stay spiritually or mentally stagnant. Take that thought and run with it. Be prepared to grow; to open your mind to the plethora of change once you accept that there is broken glass that must be mended in everyone’s lives; that you aren’t alone. And that your unique circumstance is just that: something that is not permanent but that is subject to change. You just have to let that transformation and that change in. Let God in.